West's ad shows rival's mug shot

In a scathing new ad released Friday, Florida Rep. Allen West bashes Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy for a 2003 public intoxication arrest.

The spot, titled “Decide,” tells how West, a former Army lieutenant colonel, received his deployment orders and “prepares his men to go to war” around Feb. 16, 2003 — the same night Murphy was arrested outside a South Beach night club “covered in alcohol and unable to stand.”

In June, The Palm Beach Post reported that Murphy, then a 19-year-old University of Miami freshman, was kicked out of a club for fighting with a bar patron. Police found a fake New Jersey ID on Murphy that said he was 21 years old, and he was later arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct and for cursing at officers. The Florida Democrat pleaded not guilty to the charge before prosecutors dropped the case.

West’s military record includes an August 2003 coerced interrogation where he fired a pistol beside an Iraqi police officer’s head — against Army regulations. After a hearing, according to The New York Times, the Army decided against court-martialing the Florida Republican. He was fined $5,000, submitted his resignation and retired with full benefits, The Times reported.

“I was not convicted of anything,” West said at a Boca Raton event in May. “I think everyone knows that. If you guys have a problem with the fact that people were out there planning on killing my soldiers and I found a guy and I put a pistol, shot above his head… If you guys have a problem with that, you need to go talk to someone else, because if I’m in that exact same situation, I’m making the same decision.”